Subject Guides: English & Related Literature: Find Resources

Books

Book shelves in the Library

The Library's Literature collection is a great place to start your research. As well as containing hundreds of primary sources (prose, poetry and plays by a variety of authors), the literature collection also includes numerous secondary sources - books that discuss and analyse the primary texts and other wider literary concepts, and these can help you to establish the key theories and background of your research. In addition to the literature collection, the Library also holds lots of titles to help you develop your study and writing skills.

How to find them

Use YorSearch, the Library catalogue. Many titles will be available as e-books that you can access online from anywhere; look for the View It link in YorSearch.

You may wish to also try the link to full collection of Proquest Databases (below) which gives access to ebooks not listed on Yorsearch.

Each of your modules will have a reading list of suggested books - look for the Resources link on each module site in the VLE.

Most of the books that you need will be located in the Literature section on the second floor of the Morrell, shelved under the class marks M-MY, although you may occasionally also need to look elsewhere.

Click to reveal a list of shelf locations for English Literature

The following is a summary of the main subject divisions relevant to English Literature as arranged in the Library. It is not a comprehensive list of all subjects covered.

M	Literature
M 31	Philosophy of literature
M 31.9	Literary criticism
M 38	Rhetoric & literary composition
M 38.89	Writings by particular groups, e.g., blacks, women
M 39	Literary history
M 39.91	Literary movements, e.g. Romanticism
M 39.93	Special literary topics, e.g. chivalry in literature

MA	English literature
General works are subdivided by form:
MA 41	English poetry
MA 42	English drama
MA 43	English prose and fiction
MA 44	English essays and criticism
MA 45	English theology & philosophy
MA 46	English letters and diaries
MA 47	English satire & humour
MA 48	Miscellaneous writings
MA 49	English historical writings

All other works are classified within their chronological period, e.g.:
MA 50	Anglo-Saxon literature
MA 60	Middle English literature
MA 100	Elizabethan literature
MA 190	English literature, 1945-1999
MA200	English Literature 2000-
Each period is further subdivided by literary form, e.g.
MA 51	Anglo-Saxon poetry
MA 102	Elizabethan drama
MA 193	Modern fiction
Example:
MA 190	General works on English literature 1945-1999
MA 191	English poetry 1945-1999
MA 192	English drama 1945-1999
MA 193	English prose 1945-1999
MA 203	English prose 2000-
Other literatures are arranged in the same way, e.g.
MB	American literature
MG	German literature
MJ	French literature
MM	Spanish literature
MN	Italian literature
MQ	Latin literature
MR	Greek literature

Major authors have their own individual classification number within their literary period and form, e.g. Charles Dickens is MA 163.4. Others are placed together at the end of the section for their period and form, e.g. Martin Amis at MA 193.9 AMI and William Golding at MA 193.9 GOL. Critical works about a literary author are shelved immediately after works by that author. Use the Subject search on the catalogue to find the location of works by or about a literary author; or search under English Literature to see a list of chronological periods with their classmarks

Specific literary themes or topics are classified with the literature of the same period and form, e.g. fantasy in modern English prose writing is shelved at MA 193.093.

Databases

Shelves and PCs

To start a more detailed search for articles and other research evidence, you'll need to use online databases. These are collections of resources that allow you to search for articles from hundreds of different journals at the same time.

Key databases for English Literature

LION - Literature Online This link opens in a new window
This resource is a searchable, online library of over 300,000 works of English and American poetry, prose and drama. It also provides access to a growing collection of online journals, reference works, author biographies and the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL).

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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ProQuest databases This link opens in a new window
A good source of full text books that you won't necessarily find on Yorsearch. After logging into ProQuest you will need to select the databases you want to search from the list presented.
Gives acces to a variety of abstracting and indexing databses and full text resources available on the ProQuest platform.

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Cross disciplinary databases

PsycINFO (Ovid) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
PsycINFO is the American Psychological Association's bibliographic database. PsycINFO contains citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, and technical reports, as well as citations to dissertations, all in the field of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines. Journal coverage includes international material selected from more than 1,900 periodicals written in over 35 languages. Current chapter and book coverage includes worldwide English-language material published from 1987-present. Over 80,000 references are added annually through weekly updates.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science provides access to the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

For help using this resource for bibliometrics see Bibliometrics: a practical guide.

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Other useful databases

Cambridge Companions Online: Literature and Classics This link opens in a new window
Essays on major authors, periods and genres, written by experts in their fields. For the author Companions, each writer is placed in literary and historical context; their major works are analysed, either in separate chapters or grouped according to theme, and their influence on later writers assessed.

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Oxford Handbooks Online: Literature This link opens in a new window
Access to the full text of complete titles and chapters from titles not yet available in print. You will have access to all content published online from 2012 to 2018 and in 2020, plus selected individual titles.

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Oxford Scholarly Editions Online This link opens in a new window
More than 1,300 scholarly editions of poetry, prose and drama from the Medieval period to the Renaissance and through the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries including the New Oxford Shakespeare. The editions cover a wide range of subjects including art, history, linguistics, literature, mathematics, philosophy, and religion.

Each title within the collection presents the full text of the work, as established by an authoritative editor, accompanied by the editors record of important variations in that text, and interpretative and explanatory notes. Most also have introductions placing the work and the author in a historical context, and explaining the editorial principles and the history of the text.

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Writers and Their Work: The Digital Collection This link opens in a new window
This collection gives access to all the titles in the Writers and Their Work series launched in 1955. Each title in the series presents a brief critical evaluation of the works of distinguished authors and schools of writing. The series includes volumes written by world-renowned authors and it covers the the breadth of the canon with volumes dedicated to writers ranging from Shakespeare to Sylvia Plath, James Baldwin to Carol Ann Duffy, J. R. R. Tolkien to Kazuo Ishiguro, and Jane Austen to Iris Murdoch.

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You'll find our full range of databases through the E-resources Guide.

Citation Searching

Citation searching (also known as cited reference searching) can be used if you have already identified a relevant book or journal article on the subject you are researching. Starting from the book or journal article you have identified, citation searching takes you forward in time by identifying more recent articles that cite that book or article. Citation searching usually works best if your known reference is of high quality, is authored by leaders in the field, and is limited to the subject you are researching.

Citation searching is available on a number of databases:

Business Source Premier (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
The full text of articles from almost 8,200 journals, including more than 1,100 peer-reviewed business publications. This includes the Harvard Business Review back to the first issue in 1922, and most other journals included back to 1965. The database also includes other sources of full text information such as country economic reports from the EIU, and detailed company profiles for the world's 10,000 largest companies. Additional full text, non-journal content includes market research reports, industry reports, country reports, company profiles and SWOT analyses.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
A free search portal powered by Google, which can be used as a database to search for academic-type material such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports.

For help with this resource, take a look at Searching for information: Google Scholar.

For help using this resource for bibliometrics see Bibliometrics: a practical guide.

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Science Direct This link opens in a new window
The world's largest full-text scientific database of journals in the life, physical, medical, technical and social sciences.

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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science provides access to the Science Citation Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

For help using this resource for bibliometrics see Bibliometrics: a practical guide.

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Literature on Film and Radio

The resources below give you access to works of literature created or adapted for film & radio, interviews with authors and producers on their creative process, and interviews with experts in the field.

American Film Scripts Online (Alexander Street) This link opens in a new window
Accurate and authorised versions of more than 1,000 copyrighted screenplays covering a period from 1903 to 2009. The screenplays are accompanied by detailed information on the scenes, characters and people related to the scripts. Facsimile images for more than 500 of these screenplays are also available. Many of these scripts have never been published before and are not available online anywhere else.

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BBC Shakespeare Archive This link opens in a new window
A collection of programmes and photographs from the BBC's Shakespeare archive. It includes Shakespeare’s plays, poems and sonnets, documentaries, interviews and over a thousand stills of classic Shakespeare productions, as well as entertainment programmes referencing Shakespeare.
Box of Broadcasts (BoB) This link opens in a new window
Box of Broadcasts (BoB) is an on demand TV and radio service for education. Users can record programmes from over 65 free-to-air channels and access an extensive archive of programmes already available. Users can also create clips from programmes and compile playlists.

Please note that you may only access and use BoB in the United Kingdom.

For help with this resource, take a look at the BoB FAQs.

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Digital Theatre Plus This link opens in a new window
Provides an insight into theatre from production to performance through access to streaming video. The material in Digital Theatre Plus includes:

- Productions (high-definition films of leading British theatre productions).
- Behind-the-scenes documentaries and interviews with professional theatre makers.
- Study guides written by practitioners and academics.
- Teaching support demonstrating practical techniques.
- Curated collections of filmed performance from around the world.

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Drama Online (Bloomsbury Online) This link opens in a new window
Drama Online gives access to the full-text of over 2,000 plays from the very earliest Greek works right up to the present day, including the most current editions from the Arden Shakespeare series, contemporary plays from Nick Hern Books, Aurora Metro Books, and Oberon Books, selected works of commentary and criticism and hundreds of production stills from the Victoria and Albert Museum Performance collection. There are also videos of plays in performance from the National Theatre and Stage on Screen and two Shakespeare masterclasses.

The University has access to the following:
- Core Collection of plays
- Nick Hern Books Collection (titles published up to 10th April 2019)
- Aurora Metro Books Collection
- Oberon Books Collection
- National Theatre Collections 1 & 2 (Video)
- Stage on Screen Collection (Video)
- Shakespeare in the Present (Masterclass Video)
- Shakespeare's Heroes and Villains: Steven Berkoff (Masterclass Video)
- Maxine Peake as Hamlet (Video)

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Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Kanopy gives access to thousands of films as streaming video. The database gives access to films across a range of subject areas and includes documentaries, training films, classic and independent movies and world cinema titles.

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Screen Online This link opens in a new window
Screen Online is a website covering the history of British film and television and Britain's social history as revealed by film and television. The site contains video clips from the collections of the British Film Institute National Film and Television Archive, stills, posters and press books and several hours of recorded interviews with film and television personalities.
Web of Stories This link opens in a new window
An archive of online movies featuring detailed life stories of the world's greatest thinkers, creators and achievers narrated in one-to-one interviews. The life stories are arranged into seven sections covering Arts, Film, Literature, Masters, Medicine, Politics and Science and are accompanied by transcripts with complete bibliographies or filmographies, external links to relevant websites and illustrations. Web of Stories is a dynamic resource with new life stories contiually being added.

Journals

The following are some examples of key journals for English & Related Literatures. A full listing of the academic journals subscribed to at York can be found on Yorsearch

How to find them

If you know the name of the journal you need, you can search for it in YorSearch. Most journals can be accessed online by logging in with your University username and password; look for the View It link. Some will also be available in print in the Library.

In addition to the individual journal titles suggested above the Library subscribes to some full text e-journal collections that you may wish to try:

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
A digital archive collection of core scholarly journals starting with the first issues (many of which date from the 1800s). See JSTOR's online help guide for further information.

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LION - Literature Online This link opens in a new window
This resource is a searchable, online library of over 300,000 works of English and American poetry, prose and drama. It also provides access to a growing collection of online journals, reference works, author biographies and the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL).

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Project MUSE, founded by Johns Hopkins University Press, is a database of over 380 full text scholarly journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences from over 70 (mainly university press) publishers.

For help with this resource, take a look at our Quick Guide.

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Reference Resources

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
An illustrated collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the year 2000.

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Oxford English Dictionary Online This link opens in a new window
Search on words, definitions, etymology and quotations. The OED Online contains the complete text of the 20-volume Second Edition, first published in 1989, together with later additions. New and revised entries are added every quarter.

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Medieval	Renaissance	Eighteenth Century	Nineteenth Century	Twentieth Century - Current	Global and Postcolonial Literature
Follow the links above to see the Library's literature collections grouped by Period and Place.